If you're staying stateside, you may want to skip going home for the holidays and opt for a hotel instead. A funny thing is happening in the hotel industry -- rates are falling fast, despite the fact that the week between Christmas and New Year's is typically one of the year's busiest.

With travelers clinging tightly to their wallets, you can bet more people are choosing to bunk with friends and family this December. For those willing to dish out the dollars, hotel rates have fallen from an average $180 per night to $130 per night. Even if you do head to grandma's house for Christmas goose, do yourself (and your family) a favor and stay in a nearby hotel.  You know what they say about fish and houseguests, right? Three days, max.

From the First Lady recycling old tree ornaments to handmade presents, many people are trying to celebrate the holidays in a more eco-friendly way this year. And if you're anything like me, your holiday plans probably involve traveling over the river and through the woods to Grandmother's house. How can you green your holiday travel?

Why not let Travelocity's Roaming Gnome help? As a gift to new Facebook Fans, Travelocity is helping offset the carbon emissions holiday trips for free. Green travelers even get an animated video for their Facebook walls, showing the Roaming Gnome in a growing forest. To offset your trip for free, just visit the new Green Travel tab on Travelocity’s Facebook page.

The travel industry, particularly hotels, are hoping to get in on the Cyber Monday action by offering great deals. The travel media has done a great job of picking up on this trend, so here's a sample of what's being covered and a quick snap shot of each.

Barbara De Lollis writes on the USA Today Hotel Check-In blog about Starwood and Affinia. Starwood offers up to 45 percent off rates during a three-day sale; Affinia offers 15 percent off today only. Travel into 2010.

Ben Mutzabaugh writes on the Today in the Sky blog (also USA Today) about airlines getting on on the action. United, JetBlue and Virgin America all have sales today. The United and JetBlue tickets must be purchased today.

Guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days. - Benjamin Franklin

Whether you're crashing on Aunt Edna's floral couch or hosting your in-laws for a week, the holidays are about bonding with loved ones in cramped quarters. We asked our readers to send us their most hair-raising tales of guests gone bad. Here are your houseguest horror stories!

Recently I discovered How I Met Your Mother, which means I was the second-to-last person on Earth to get obsessed with it. This show nails what it's like to be a young adult in the city. And so far my favorite episode has been "Murtaugh." In it, Ted says he has a list of things he is now too old to do, like pull an all-nighter or drink from a beer bong. The list is named after the main character in Lethal Weapon, Roger Murtaugh, who famously says, "I'm gettin' too old for this sh*t." But the item on Ted's Murtaugh List that resonated the most with me was: Crash on a friend's futon for the night instead of getting a hotel room.

As I've mentioned before, I'm a native of Panama City, Florida. Very few of us have left the Redneck Riviera--and that is probably because the Emerald Coast is one of our nation's best kept secrets. It's gorgeous there. Hand on my heart, the beaches blow away anything I've ever seen in Hawaii or California and are on par with the best shores of the Caribbean. But my quiet--and okay, a bit backwater--town may soon be thrust into the tourism spotlight.

I'm all about getting sporty on my trips. When I was training for the NYC marathon, I had to visit Washington, D.C. at a crucial point of my training. Instead of halting training or spending hours running on the hotel treadmill, I hired a running guide through City Running Tours who took me on a sightseeing run through our nation's capital.

So when I heard about a physical fitness event  -- again, in Washington, DC -- coming up on October 11, I thought I would share it with you. Bike for the Heart is a day-long event put on by the Sister to Sister organization, a group dedicated to educating women about heart health and risk prevention and providing free heart health checkups.

The day consists of four events:

 - a family-friendly five-mile bike ride around our nation's capital (this would be my choice)

Deal alert: If you've been thinking about taking a volunteer vacation, there's almost never been a better time to book. Globe Aware is offering 15% off trips booked before October 12, 2009 and completed by November 20, 2010. How are they doing this? The devoted employees at Globe Aware are donating hours so the organization can pass along savings to you!

Choose from volunteer vacations to Peru, Costa Rica, Thailand, Brazil, Romania, Jamaica, China, and more! Plus, don't forget that the program fee and airfare are 100% tax deductible for U.S. and Canadian citizens.

So let's recap the deal. You get:

1) Warm fuzzies from helping people in need around the world

2) 15% off your volunteer vacation program fee

3) An awesome tax write-off

Missoula, Mi-zoo-lah: It’s a name that trips off the tongue singingly. And I’m hearing it sung through the travel grapevine that it’s where in Montana you want to be the last weekend of this month and the first weekend of September, for two very different reasons.

First, on the weekend of August 29 and 30, it’ll be time to put down your fishing pole, hang up your hiking shoes, get off your high horse (or llama), and come on down to Missoula for the fourth annual River City Roots Festival, which is absolutely free for all who attend!

Not sure if you've heard, but travel is a great deal right now. That's a joke, of course. If you've ever read this blog (or really, a newspaper or any other news source) in the last eight months, you already know travel is a great deal! In fact, our first-ever Traveler Confidence Report confirmed what we at Travelocity long suspected -- that travelers are encouraged by price decreases in airfare and hotels and plan to take advantage of the deals available.

But what interests me is not the fact that prices across the industry are down (one exception: rental cars) but that there are a few easy steps anyone can take to shave big bucks off the total cost of a vacation. Here are seven easy steps to saving $1,000 or more.

Photo courtesy of IgoUgo.com member ripplefan2.